1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is a feature for starting, stopping and recording playing time of a timed game, such as a pop target game. Contestants play by competing against their opponent's best time for completing the game.
2. The Prior Art
Timed games customarily have one contestant competing against the best playing time of another contestant rather than having the two contestants playing simultaneously. The game is normally started by a timekeeper yelling "go" and simultaneously punching a knob on a stop watch to start the stop watch. The game is normally ended when the timekeeper observes some event, such as the contestant completing the game, and then punches the knob on the stop watch a second time to stop the stop watch. One problem with this type of timekeeping is that manual starting and stopping of the stop watch by a time keeper is inherently subject to substantial errors due to the variation in the reaction times of an individual timekeeper or between different timekeepers.
It is the principle object of the present invention to automatically start and stop a stop watch in order to time a contestant's elapsed game time, thus allowing a contestant's elapsed game time to be recorded in a more accurate fashion than possible with manual starting and stopping of a stop watch. A further object is to provide a feature which can be activated either by the contestant or by another person.
3. Cross-Reference to Related Applications
This application constitutes an improvement over patent application Ser. No. 07/745,545 filed on Aug. 15, 1991 for a "Microswitch Activating Device For Fishing Game Apparatus", now U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,170, issued Jan. 19, 1993 by the inventor of the present invention and an improvement over patent application Ser. No. 07/835,367 filed on Feb. 14, 1992 for a "Fastener For Holding An Object Against The Side Of A Pipe" by the inventor of the present invention.